A Brief History of Portugal

Addendum - what's in a name?

NOW, IF THERE are any long-suffering students left standing (or sitting for that matter) after this dash through Portugal's colourful history, they may recall the run-in to Part VI, hinted at something, shall we say, personal.  It's all to do with the possible linking of my surname, Devereux, to the goings-on in Portugal at that time; we are talking here of events around the 1590's.

Just to set the scene, a little background on Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex might be useful.  Born in 1566, he was brought up to be an aristocrat, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and thereafter shared a ‘love hate' relationship with Queen Elizabeth I, being one of her closest courtiers.  In fact, there is even some scandalous suggestion in documents discovered since those times that Devereux fathered a child with Elizabeth.  But if this was the case, nothing has since been found to confirm what happened to the bastard child. Not surprisingly, perhaps, when you think what an impact this scandal could have had on the future history of England!

Now let's get back to the Portuguese connection.  It was Sir Francis Drake originally blamed for an attack on Faro in 1596, just before he died of dysentery at sea.  The attack left the whole of Faro as a city in smouldering ruins.  (Remember, this was during the time when Spain ruled Portugal, and therefore the attack didn't break the 1396 peace agreement between England and Portugal.)  Anyway, further research has now shown that in fact Robert Devereux was responsible for this carnage and not poor old Drake.  Prior to issuing orders for Faro to be fire-stormed, he raided the Bishop of Faro's palace and removed a quantity of books and manuscripts from the library before setting sail for England.

It was around this time that Sir Thomas Bodley, a professional diplomat, recently retired after his service in Denmark, set about restoring and extending the library at Oxford University.  Thomas Bodley and Robert Devereux had known each other for some time and, therefore, it was natural that, in order to help his friend with the library restoration, Robert Devereux should donate some 200 of the volumes and various manuscripts, which he had confiscated from the Bishop of Faro's Palace.  (There is a certain irony here in that Robert Devereux was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and so one would not have expected these books to be given to Oxford University.)

The restorations and purchase of a large quantity of books, from money donated by a number of generous benefactors, took Bodley four years to complete starting from his diplomatic service retirement in 1598.  The library was re-established as the Bodleian Library in 1602. It was proclaimed as the first public library in Europe and nowadays is reputed to be the finest reference library in the world.  Even more interesting is the fact that these 200 volumes (which have a direct link to Portugal through the Bishops of Faro's Palace) still reside on the same shelves designated for them by the first librarian, Dr Thomas James some 400 years ago.

That's about all regarding Robert Devereux's involvement with Portugal during the late 1590's.  His exploits became more and more daring , even after a short break in 1596, he led a party to raid Cadiz in Spain.  Why?  Just to give Spain a bloody nose for their occupation of Portugal.  Eventually he got involved with a failed plot to overthrow the English Parliament, was found guilty of treason and beheaded in 1601.

You (my most forgiving of student(s)) will now understand why I couldn't reasonably include these tenuous connections between my family name and Portuguese history in the main part of ABHOP.  The fact that Robert Devereux razed Faro (one of my favourite cities in the world) to the ground is a good enough reason for the ‘clan' to keep their heads down low.  This, added to the fact that he had his head chopped off for treason, doesn't help our family name being held in high esteem either.  It would also have meant that there could have been an unwelcome diversion from the main reason for this book.  Namely, for you to enjoy this breeze through the essential parts of Portuguese history from 1396 to 1986.  Have fun!
 

    David Devereux

     dfdev@btinternet.com

Why not now have a look at the Family Tree of Kings and Queens of Portugal?

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